Tampa Bay cold weather: How to protect your plants as temperatures dip

TOWN 'N' COUNTRY, Fla - Cold temperatures are coming this weekend, and it could have a drastic impact on your plants. 

Protecting plants from freezing temperatures

What they're saying:

Experts at Green Thumb Nursery in Town ‘n’ Country said watering plants at the root the day before a freeze can help.

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"Water, the soil of the plant, the day before, like on a day where it's warmer, right," said Blake Rey, the manager of Green Thumb Nursery. "That way your plants, your roots are protected."

Blake Rey said getting the leaves wet before a freeze could cause more harm than good.

"That might attract frost onto the plant overnight, which frost, if you wake up in the morning and the sun comes out, that might potentially burn your plants," Blake Rey said.

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For smaller, more manageable plants, covering them with frost cloth or a sheet can prevent damage, but remember to take it off the next morning.

"It can actually get too hot, and then you end up burning the plant, or it's not getting enough sunlight," said Steven Rey, the owner of Green Thumb Nursery.

All it takes is a few rocks to hold the sheet down and your plants have a better chance of surviving this freeze.

"Usually one layer is good enough," said Steven Rey. "You don't want it, again, to be too heavy on the plant. So this is nice and light, and it insulates real well. It breathes, too."

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Florida's tropical plants

Dig deeper:

A lot of plants in Florida are tropical and not cut out for a freeze or a frost.

"Some of them are a little bit further south than Florida, so when they climb up to Tampa, they're like, why is it freezing?" Blake Rey said.

What you can do:

If you are not sure what plants you have, there are resources out there.

"Google Lens works great," said Steven Rey. "I mean, you can always call us, you know, we have a Green Thumb cell phone, you could send us pictures, but the Google Lens is awesome."

The experts said if you have a palm tree, try to cover the fronds.

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"Palms have something called a heart in the center, and it holds a lot of moisture in there," said Steven Rey. "So trying to protect that is really important for palm trees."

But, you might have to just wait it out and hope for the best.

"I feel bad for some people who have some of those really large specimen palms," said Steven Rey. "You kind of have to like cross your fingers."

What if your plant gets damaged? 

What you can do:

If your plant is damaged by the cold, leave those leaves and branches on until the spring.

"If you cut something back prematurely, like say we get another cold snap like this, essentially what you're doing is you're opening the plant up to exposure to the weather," said Steven Rey. "So if we get a freeze like this shortly after, it could freeze the inside of the plant and damage it." 

If you can take your potted plants inside, this will help to better protect them.